Control your fucking kids already.

[badstar]

It's another "I hate people" day. I really hate people. Especially parents with kids. And store employees who don't bother, oh I don't know, telling an entire fucking store full of parents with obnoxious kids to control their brats.

We went to Michael's today to pick up some crafty things. I got some brilliant shrine ideas in my head and wanted to grab the requisite supplies to get started.

I was there long enough to find a wall shelf like I wanted, and two little decorations for it...but I was far from done. However, the shopping had to be cut short because no matter where we went, there were screaming kids running everywhere.

I mean parent is on one side of the store, and kids are as far from parent as they can be without leaving the confines of the store's walls, yelling, screaming, causing massive annoyance and headaches. Kids ranging from three our four to eleven or twelve years old. Playing tag or whatever. I almost tripped on kids a few times because they were just running all over the place.

Do I ever see a single employee try to locate a parent and ask them to please control their rotten brats precious tykes or get them the fuck out of the store? Of course not.

Coming up to the cashier, I made it a point to let the clerk know that we would have stayed longer, and would have done a little more for the economy by purchasing more merchandise in their fine establishment, but could not stand to be there because of all the screaming kids running around with no parental supervision.

Her response? "Oh, yeah, but it's not as bad as it is some other times you know. Sometimes for hours on end."

So...let me get this straight...the company doesn't care about little kids running unsupervised on a store screaming and yelling while their parents go about their business half a football field away completely unawares?

They're clearly unafraid of losing revenue from people who can't stand to shop in such an environment, but you'd think if nothing else there would be some sort of liability concern if the damned brats were to do something stupid and get hurt?

Oh...but then two of the kids were suddenly seen walking more quietly around. So she says "It looks like they've quieted down now if you want to continue shopping" (nevermind that you could hear other kids yelling and running around elsewhere in the store.)

No. Fuck no. I'm not staying there. I make some sarcastic comment about needing to wait for my projects until school starts and do my shopping during school hours, and she seems to think I mean "Oh, no that's okay, I'll just put my projects on hold until the little dears are back in school and then I can shop without having to inconvenience their screaming and running around." and says something like "Oh, yes, you should come back then. It's quiet here then."

Why the fuck do I have to deal with this...everywhere in this city? I have never seen half such a problem elsewhere that I've been. Most recently New York City, where the only place I had a bitch about out of control kids was the Museum of Natural History, and that was mostly confined to the gem room, which is set up to resemble a little kiddie playground. (No, seriously. If you haven't been there...it does.)

If you can't or won't control your kids, leave them at home with a babysitter. Or, better yet, stay home and fucking teach them to behave a bit. Yeah, kids need to have fun...but running wild around a retail store is not the way to go, and you're letting them do so is just a manifestation of what an inconsiderate asshole you are.

Oh, and then there were the kids screaming and yelling and running around on the train on the way home.

How loud were they? Okay, let's put it this way...I had the iPod on. Loud enough that it was probably damaging my hearing- it actually caused me some pain from time to time. And I could still hear every scream and shriek.

Fucking irresponsible parents.

Comments

[gallows-queen.livejournal.com]

I sympathize. I really hate kids, especially kids whose parents can't or won't control them. Some people just should not be allowed to reproduce.

[falnfenix]

i wouldn't be surprised if the employees weren't permitted to say a word. when i worked retail in a few different stores, each one had a policy about kids written into the employee handbook.

[neowiccan.livejournal.com]

the cashier is in a difficult position.
she probably sympathizes with you.
i work at a restaurant one night per week, a high-end bistro which is really not suited to kids. for some reason last week we got a butt-ton of 'em, screaming, jumping around, very annoying to our mostly-older regular crowd who are willing to pay a good price for a fantastic meal and want to enjoy it in peace. after one particularly loud shriek from a child the chef ROARED from back in the kitchen. the mom eeped and stifled her kids, for a while at least.
it was pretty funny.
but not really something any of us servers could do.
khairete
suz

[bluedolfyn.livejournal.com]

Yay retail!

At my old Rite Aid, we were allowed to scold kids for doing, you know, dangerous things, like running in the stores and being loud. We were allowed to kick them out, their parents along with them. Hell, often my store manager would pick them up and literally throw them out. Especially when they decided they could ride their bikes in the store. He looooved that.

Here? Here they seem to not mind if the kids are running around and being loud. Here, too, the whole place seems to be "yay children" which is such an alien concept to my poor brain. But, an employee low in the chain of command is not going to say anything to any kid or parent if they know their not going to be backed by managers or supervisors. When we're only going to catch flack for it, we grin and bear it and hope they die. Or, at least, leave soon. I don't understand letting kids run wild -- its a lawsuit waiting to happen -- but, whatever. People have stupid ideas about catering to kids and letting them be monsters, and not wanting to bother parenting. Because, you don't have to *work* once you have the kid, right? Its not like parenting is a job, is a responsibility, right? They should be able to just live their lives like nothings changed . . .

I miss so much about how my old store was. :o(

[pagandenma.livejournal.com]

Urk. My kids start pulling that kind of shit, I pack 'em up and take 'em home. And then spank their butts, pull their privileges and put them in their rooms for an hour or two.

Some parents just don't get it. You are not your kid's friend. Their disciplinarian? Yes. Their role model for good behavior? Yes. Their friend. NO, hell no.

Punish their arses, and teach them how to behave. If you wouldn't let them do it at home, for Gods' sake, don't let them do it in public. (And no, my kids play tag in the backyard, NOT the damn house!)

Sorry you had to deal with the inevitable result of bad parenting.

[phoenix-glow.livejournal.com]

As a breeder who does't specifically hate all kids, perhaps I can add another perspective. I agree that parents shouldn't give up any and all responsibilty to their children when they go out in public. However, parents are human too, and not always able to be on top of their kids all the time. Occasionally even parents without babysitters need to grab something at the store. Kind of hard to put off ALL errands for a decade or two.

However, I think it would be well within anyone's right being harrassed by kids to tell both the kids and the parents that they need to be quieter. Perhaps next time you might consider asking to speak to the manager and making a more formal complaint that might get some results. The cashier might not have the authority to do anything, and enough formal complaints might change how the store is run.

One thing I always keep in mind with kids is that people put great time and effort into getting me to adulthood. I pay that back by looking out for kids around me now - whether they be mine or someone else's. ;)

[fuego.livejournal.com]

However, parents are human too, and not always able to be on top of their kids all the time.

Yes, this is true, I know- I have parents of my own. I was one of four kids. Six if you count my step brothers. I even know what utter monsters kids can be- you haven't seen fun until you've met my sister and brothers in elementary school. Me, I was the quiet kid. Kids drove me nuts when I was still a kid. And my mom was hardly Super-Mom, but she was able to take four of us out without a second parental figure if she wanted and never have any problems even resembling what I see when I go...well, almost anywhere anymore it seems. There were mishaps, yes but she actually bothered to try to keep control.

Also, I think there's a difference between say, turning your back for a second and your five year old running a couple of aisles away before you manage to grab him, and what is clearly allowing multiple children to run from one end of a store the size of a Michael's to another. Not only that, but what I saw was, I have to guess, no less than three different families worth of kids doing this.

However, I think it would be well within anyone's right being harrassed by kids to tell both the kids and the parents that they need to be quieter.

The kids weren't harassing us personally, they were just...there. Everywhere. There was one instance where I was reasonably sure who the responsible adult was to two kids, but that was before the kids started running around like rampant little lunatics and even if I had tracked them down and asked them to control Little Precious and Little Darling, and even assuming that they didn't chew my head off for telling them that their kids needed to be supervised (because, you know, a lot of people take it sooooooo well if you try to tell them what they need to do about their kids)there were still plenty of other kids running around screaming that I couldn't even begin to guess who the parents were.

The cashier might not have the authority to do anything, and enough formal complaints might change how the store is run.

Quite possible. I was too sick of the noise at the time and ready to get out of there to think about it...but if she didn't have the authority, perhaps she should have suggested speaking to a manager? Other than all the kids running around, the place wasn't that busy or anything so it's not like they had a billion customers to deal with...

In any case, I did send an email to their customer service, which I received a reply telling me that it's been forwarded to the district manager and store manager. Of course, the person that sent the reply didn't bother to answer my question as to whether or not they have some sort of company-wide policy regarding that sort of situation. Let's hope the district or store manager are more responsive to questions.

[fuego.livejournal.com]

I don't hate children but I will readily admit I dislike about 98% of them for this very reason. Breeders breed and are breeding spoiled brats who can get away with murder in public and if anyone dare criticise them, the critic is called an abuser or worse. I respect _parents_ who actually supervise and (reasonably) discipline their kids. I _like_ well-behaved, polite children. I don't see very many of them these days.

Yes...this. I don't actually hate kids myself, but yes, I do enthusiastically dislike a significantly large chunk of them, and I blame the parents for a significantly large chunk of that. Kids can't help if they have sucky parents.

Unfortunately, a lot of them never outgrow it and learn to be decent adults.

[fuego.livejournal.com]

Uhg...I worked for Rite Aid when I first moved to Baltimore. Two different stores actually, for a total of about six months. I never really saw much in the way of problems with kids in those two stores at that time. Once in a while one would get on my nerves for a few minutes or something, but it was usually a crying baby or something more difficult to really do anyhting about- it's not like crying babies have any other options for communication.

But knowing the managers that I had at those two stores, there would have been no problems with telling a parent to supervise their kids if the need would have arisen.

I've also been a manager in the past in other stores. I've had no problems with going up to a kid doing something they shouldn't be and telling them to stop, and asking parents to control their kids. Hell, I've told adults to knock it off when they were doing something they shouldn't. I worked in a Corning-Revere store for a while, and we had these magnet towers. One of them was covered in magnets that made noise when you pressed a button. Jeebus on a pogo stick, I may very well have hated those things more than I've ever hated anyhting. People loved those fucking things, and parents seemed to think that the magnet tower was just a swell babysitter while they went shopping for their pots and pans, and kids would just sit there pressing those buttons for hours on end if you let them.

Er, so would the adults.

I would ask the kids one time to stop and go back to their parents. If that didn't fix it, I'd find the parents (It wasn't that big a store, this was pretty easy to do.) and I'd ask them to supervise their kids because we had so much dangerous stuff around- yay kitchen stuff. (I probably shouldn't mention how often I fantasized about "accidentally" dropping big boxes of dishes on obnoxious people from the storage ledges that surrounded the store when I was up there doing stuff.) Maybe it was the threat of the dangerous stuff hurting their kids, but- at least in that store- I never had a situation where I had to ask someone to remove their kids, though I did in another place.

[phoenix-glow.livejournal.com]

Sorry if I sounded a little high-handed. Good for you sending the email -- hopefully it will do some good! I agree the store should handle out-of-control kids better. It is a shame the parents are using a store as a playground.